But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
1 SAMUEL 16:7

Reputation is what men and women think of us;
character is what God and the angels know of us.
THOMAS PAINE


The world is obsessed with reputation and outward appearances. The Lord looks upon the heart. He sees the underlying truth of all things. Nothing is hidden from Him. He is not deceived by appearances. Nor is He swayed reputation. Reputation is meaningless, unless anchored in solid character. Character is what we are before the eyes of God; reputation is what we are before the eyes of the world.
As Christians, we must be more concerned about character than reputation. What we are before the eyes of God is more important than what we are before the eyes of the world. A body without the spirit is dead; so is reputation without character. Those who labor to build a reputation, while neglecting to build character, court disaster. Such was the religion of the Pharisees: outwardly righteous, inwardly corrupt; rich in appearance, poor in character; praised of men, rejected of God.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
MATTHEW 23:27-28

A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Lord works in our lives, not to build an outward form of godliness, but to build true, godly character. His work begins with a flawed, sinful human being and continues throughout a lifetime. His aim is to shape and conform each Christian into the image of His Son. True, godly character sees its fullest expression in the Lord Jesus Christ. No disparity existed between what He was outwardly and what He was inwardly. The leaven of hypocrisy found no place in Him.

You will find a good many flaws in our character, a good many things you may not like in the followers of Christ, but I challenge you to find a flaw in the character of our Master.
D.L. MOODY

A good name and reputation are only of real worth if they are built upon good character. The Lord gave a word of reproof to the church in Sardis: “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” In this case, the difference between character and reputation was the difference between life and death. He gave the reproof, not to condemn the church, but in an effort to redirect their attention from the outward to the inward. He works in our lives to that same end.
Godly character is prerequisite for usefulness in God’s kingdom. One may go far in the world on reputation alone, but character is required to advance in God’s work. The character that has been changed and shaped by God’s grace fits into God’s plan and purpose and glorifies Him.

Major on character—what God sees—and everything else will be right. To pretend to be what we are not is to rot away at the heart. But to strive to be what God wants us to be is to build a life for His glory.
UNKNOWN